New Nokia Club at LA Live Downtown included was the “38 Special & Rick Springfield Concert” (12/08)
The new Nokia Club downtown (Part of LA LIVE) and across from the Staples Center is quite the venue. Think of a modern House of Blues with plenty of space and high-end furniture and décor. We went to see the 38 Special/Rick Springfield concert last week and we very impressed with the show and venue.
The Southern Rockers of 38 Special brought out all their greatest hits to enlighten the crowd and were the opening act. These guys have been around forever and were smooth and fluid while Holding on Loosely but not letting go.
At the intermission, I toured around the venue. The bottom floor is a huge standing space with a pit where you have to have a special ticket to cram yourself in to get as close to the acts as possible. Directly behind there is a spacious area where there is more room to watch or wander around depending on how crowded it is. My next stop was the 4th floor, which is the VIP section. This is a luxurious place to have a drink while watching whoever is playing on HDTV. It was not very crowded which made it more exclusive but yet again, a special ticket or pass is needed to get in here. I made my way back upstairs to the comfy seats to relax and enjoy the show. The seats are located on the 5th floor (all floors accessible by elevators with friendly staff helping you). One would think the 5th floor would be too high to see the show, but the seats were perfect and it was very intimate.
Rick Springfield came on and the crowd went wild. After watching the show I can now see why he has such a strong fan base. He was dressed very casually and had a carefree attitude. However, that was one of the main reasons people love him besides recognizing him from his role on General Hospital. Everyone remembers “Jesse’s Girl” but Rick has many other hits plus showmanship and incredible connection with the audience. There were two other memorable parts of the show. One being his popular song “Don’t talk to Strangers” where he not only had a big security guard sing some lyrics but he brought up a little boy about 10 yrs old to sing with him on stage. The other being on another past favorite song called “Human Touch” where he went into the crowd. Everyone had their hands on him while he was performing the song and all of a sudden, he fell back for everyone to catch him. He continued the song while on his back with people holding him up and passing him to others getting closer to the stage. As he got very close, that same security guard helped him down to finish the song on stage. That was awesome. Overall, the show was very good and I would highly recommend the venue. More info on the venue at www.clubnokia.com
To check out the bands, go to www.38special.com and www.rickspringfield.com